Chronology of Tunnel Sterns

Hi All I am building a “River Belle” and I’m keen to establish the order in which Mr William produced his various Tunnel Stern designs. The table below

Message 1 of 13
, Oct 20, 2009

0 Attachment

Hi All

I am building a “River Belle” and I’m keen
to establish the order in which Mr William produced his various Tunnel Stern
designs.

The table below is my attempt to document the chronology of
this design group and I would welcome any comments that would help correct
and/or complete it. I have taken the information from various sources and it is
sometimes contradictory, so we’ll end up with “best guesses”
I expect.

I’ll post it into the Public Domain via Yahoo Groups
when it is finished.

> I am building a "River Belle" and I'm keen to establish the order in which
> Mr William produced his various Tunnel Stern designs.
>
>
>
> The table below is my attempt to document the chronology of this design
> group and I would welcome any comments that would help correct and/or
> complete it. I have taken the information from various sources and it is
> sometimes contradictory, so we'll end up with "best guesses" I expect.

> Mr William produced his various Tunnel Stern designs.
>
>
>
> The table below is my attempt to document the chronology of this design
> group and I would welcome any comments that would help correct and/or
> complete it. I have taken the information from various sources and it is
> sometimes contradictory, so we'll end up with "best guesses" I

It s apparent from his published writings that what Wm. Atkin thought was his great innovation of the type was the _V-bottom_ Seabright skiff. He didn t

Message 5 of 13
, Nov 5, 2009

0 Attachment

It's apparent from his published writings that what Wm. Atkin thought was
his great innovation of the type was the _V-bottom_ Seabright skiff. He
didn't consider tunnel-sterns anything all that special, just a variation
of the basic idea. Indeed, other people had designed and built
tunnel-stern traditional, round-bilge Seabright skiffs, likely before Wm.
started doing so. Wm. may have done the tunnel-sterns better than the
other designers, but it was the V-bottom that he was most proud of. So,
when he writes in an article about a tunnel-stern, V-bottom Seabright
skiff that Mischief was the first of the type, I'm pretty sure he meant
she was the first V-bottom Seabright skiff, and she may, or may not, have
had a tunnel stern. Reinforcing my opinion on this is Galilee, mentioned
in a list of ancestors to one of the tunnel-stern, V-bottom Seabright
skiffs (River Belle?). At first I thought that there might be two
Galilees, the one mentioned in the list and the Galilee whose plans were
published in MoTor BoatinG, it wouldn't be the only time the Atkins
recycled names, but the MB Galilee fits into the list too well. That
Galilee, design #230, is a 24' x 4' 6" double-ended, V-bottom Seabright
skiff runabout with _no_ tunnel.

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:00:04 -0700, Alan B wrote:

> I am building a “River Belle” and I’m keen to establish the order in
> which
> Mr William produced his various Tunnel Stern designs.
>
>
> The table below is my attempt to document the chronology of this design
> group and I would welcome any comments that would help correct and/or
> complete it. I have taken the information from various sources and it is
> sometimes contradictory, so we’ll end up with “best guesses” I expect.
>
>
> I’ll post it into the Public Domain via Yahoo Groups when it is finished.
> ...
> Mischief
> Jennie
> Galilee
> Grampus Jr.
> Heron
> Nanuk III
> Islamorada
> Rescue Minor
> River Belle
> A landing craft
> Nibble
> Little Water
> Everhope
>

--
John <jkohnen@...>
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be
thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
<H. L. Mencken>

--
John (jkohnen@...)
No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of
society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we
shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for
stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. (P.J. O'Rourke)

Alan Boman

Thanks John, That makes sense. In the description of Shoals Runner , Mr William says he has been designing tunnel sterns for 35 years and in the

Message 9 of 13
, Nov 14, 2009

0 Attachment

Thanks John,

That makes sense. In the description of 'Shoals Runner', Mr William says he
has been "designing tunnel sterns for 35 years" and in the description of
'River Belle' he says he has been "designing Tunnel Sterns for 21 years".
This suggests that 'Shoals Runner' was designed 35-21=14 years after 'River
Belle' which we know was 1943. That gives us a design date for 'Shoals
Runner' of 1957, which fits nicely with the dates you gave us.

It also makes it a fair bet that 'Shoals Runner' was designed for plywood
construction - does anybody know that for sure ?

--
John (jkohnen@...)
No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of
society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we
shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for
stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. (P.J. O'Rourke)

------------------------------------

No flaming, cursing, politics, religion or public mopery. Please be polite.

If you set out to build an Atkin boat, please do not modify the plans. If
you stray from the plans you do so at your own risk and Atkin & Co. will
take no responsibility for the performance of the resulting boat.

Oops! I meant to say that #782 is dated May 1954 and #792 is dated May 1958, so Shoals Runner, #786, is somewhere between... Shoals Runner uses 1/4 plywood

Message 10 of 13
, Nov 14, 2009

0 Attachment

Oops! I meant to say that #782 is dated May 1954 and #792 is dated May
1958, so Shoals Runner, #786, is somewhere between... Shoals Runner uses
1/4" plywood for its planking.

On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:42:12 -0800, Alan B wrote:

> Thanks John,
>
> That makes sense. In the description of 'Shoals Runner', Mr William
> says he
> has been "designing tunnel sterns for 35 years" and in the description of
> 'River Belle' he says he has been "designing Tunnel Sterns for 21 years".
> This suggests that 'Shoals Runner' was designed 35-21=14 years after
> 'River
> Belle' which we know was 1943. That gives us a design date for 'Shoals
> Runner' of 1957, which fits nicely with the dates you gave us.
>
> It also makes it a fair bet that 'Shoals Runner' was designed for plywood
> construction - does anybody know that for sure ?

--
John (jkohnen@...)
Correlation does not imply causation; except, of course, to your
cat. (Craig O'Donnell)

Alan Boman

Hi All, Those who have been members of this Group for some time may recall that I started building the bigger version of Atkin s Tunnel Stern, River Belle ,

Those who have been members of this Group for some time may recall that I
started building the bigger version of Atkin's Tunnel Stern, "River Belle",
some time back.

By way of an update, after eighteen months the hull is now finished and we
turned it "sunny side up" last week - it's quite a sight.....

Mr William's design specified sawn frames and double diagonal planking of
course, but we have used epoxy & marine ply on sacrificial station moulds
and it has come out very well. We also made the sides curved for clinker
planking (sorry John!) and that too, looks really good.

I have attached a couple of photos for those interested and I have been
maintaining a construction log at http://riverbelle.boman.biz as well if you
want all the really gory details together with lots more photos.

Now for the fitting out......

Alan
Adelaide, South Australia

Moose

Hi Alan Looks good needs more pic s. Who is that ugly guy at the back in the second picture.

Message 12 of 13
, Mar 21 3:02 AM

0 Attachment

Hi Alan
Looks good needs more pic's. Who is that ugly guy at the back in the second picture.

--- In AtkinBoats@yahoogroups.com, "Alan Boman" <alan@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Those who have been members of this Group for some time may recall that I
> started building the bigger version of Atkin's Tunnel Stern, "River Belle",
> some time back.
>
> By way of an update, after eighteen months the hull is now finished and we
> turned it "sunny side up" last week - it's quite a sight.....
>
> Mr William's design specified sawn frames and double diagonal planking of
> course, but we have used epoxy & marine ply on sacrificial station moulds
> and it has come out very well. We also made the sides curved for clinker
> planking (sorry John!) and that too, looks really good.
>
> I have attached a couple of photos for those interested and I have been
> maintaining a construction log at http://riverbelle.boman.biz as well if you
> want all the really gory details together with lots more photos.
>
> Now for the fitting out......
>
>
> Alan
> Adelaide, South Australia
>

Alan Boman

Hi All, Those members of this Group with longer memories will recall that I started building Atkin s River Belle , some time back. Twelve months ago, with my

Message 13 of 13
, Apr 27, 2011

0 Attachment

Hi All,

Those members of this Group with longer memories will recall that I started building Atkin’s "River Belle", some time back.

Twelve months ago, with my last update, I was celebrating the turning of the hull with “just the fitting out to go”. Ha! Another twelve months on ( nearly 3 years altogether now) we are still fitting out!

With no formal plan for the interior this has taken a long, long time. However, most of the interior layout is now defined at least, if not completely built. Having started at the stern, the stateroom floors and Queen sized bed frame are in place, which reinforces the tunnel stern. Some of the bathroom & toilet walls are up and the stairs up to the bridge deck / saloon are in. The engine bearers, prop shaft tunnel and rudder trunk, are all in place too. I have just started on the galley in the bow and will now work back to the bridge deck.

Since the whole boat is made of plywood and epoxy, without any other fixings, it has been named “Rhapsody In Glue”. If you’d like to read a detailed “blog” and see a library of photos, go to www.rhapsodyinglue.com.

Alan

Your message has been successfully submitted and would be delivered to recipients shortly.